Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Keep Leucadia Crappy Club

The Keep Leucadia Crappy Club is growing in membership and gaining momentum.
The KLCC is against any and all infrastructure improvements along Leucadia's historic Hwy 101.
The KLCC will ensure that Leucadia's property and sales tax revenue will continue to pay for capital improvements in the other communities of Encinitas.
The KLCC is here to make sure Leucadia will wither and die.
Are you a member of the KLCC?

I was going to join the KLCC for the following reasons:* To raise the speed limit back up to 40 mph - restoring the nostalgia of the Leucadia Gauntlet and to discourage commuters from all points north from using Interstate 5 to commute to work.* To keep the current intersection at La Costa ave with no U TURN capabilities and stay a good neighbor to Carlsbad by keeping all that potential revenue headed north. * Swap out the recently planted 101 "broom stick trees" in exchange for 101 inexpensive 80' canopy trees that easily could have planted instead.* Remove those nasty retro style street lamp posts at Roadside Park / RR crossing to bring back those attractive 60' galvanized Cell Block H lamps.* To effect the return of a narrower, more textured RR crossing at Leucadia Blvd* To remove the million dollar landscaping, sidewalks and lighting installed at Leucadia Roadside Park / RR right of way so they could "send all that junk to Disneyland"* To keep as many stop signs as possible on 101 to help with local gas sales and help warm the planet.* To ditch the idea of roundabouts altogether to help naturally reduce the population and promote survival of the fastest. But then I wondered, "What the hell was I thinking?".

Encinitas has worse than Walmart, it has the L word and David Smith. Thank God they don't live in Leucadia. They call themselves Leucadians, but they are not. Look on a map where they live. Their houses are outside the boundary of Leucadia.

Poor Encinitas- stuck with losers like those two which is sure to lower property values in that area.

We can keep Leucadia Funky and save and enhance the canopy without dividing the community and trying to demonize those who speak for the majority of residents adjacent to North 101.

Hurling insults may make you anonymous cowards popular in your own "club," but those who try to turn left, onto the highway, going northbound, know it's already very difficult now. Were there to be less breaks in traffic, as there would be with lane reduction, that would be worse.

Also, emergency response time will be negatively impacted, and cut through traffic will increase as traffic builds up , there are more back ups, and longer periods of congestion.

Public health and safety will be compromised, as well as access to and from the beach. Some of the same people who wanted to BLIGHT LEUCADIA, to form a developer run redevelopment agency, are now trying to call Leucadia crappy. Go ahead and join the club, if you want to.

We could be inclusive, rather than divisive, and consider viable alternatives, like trenching the train, having a beautiful linear park, as in Solana Beach, a Greenscape, rather than a Streetscam Crap Plan!

Local artists could be encouraged and inspired to contribute works of art, as have been installed along the Coast Highway in Solana Beach.

Most people want to preserve our unique, laid back community character. We've had big improvements with more sidewalks. Rather than undergrounding pedestrian "bridges" to cross the tracks, and building roundabouts not recommended by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation along railroad corridors OR where cross street traffic is significantly less than the main thoroughfare (the plan is to put them at 3 way intersections, here!) we could put the $36 or $37 million we would save, altogether, into trenching to train from El Portal to La Costa, where it's already trenched!

Property owners adjacent to any "linear park" or who receive more parking and higher property values due to the improvements, should have to pay a Special Property Tax Assessments, as property owners along the linear park in Solana Beach have had to. You don't get something for nothing!

Apparently your brain has no ability to understand other perspectives.

You and your three wackos are not the majority of people adjacent to Hwy101 and the project will not increase but through traffic, and you are costing our City and Leucadia dearly.

The streetscape process went through 2 years of workshops and in the end was overwhelming supported by the surrounding community.

The KLCC just doesn't get it and never will.

I will never join your club. I am a member of Leucadia Town Council and L101. Those organizations are focused on positive change for Leucadia and have always been against a redevelopment district for the area.

As usual. You have your head so far up your ass, it no oxygen and you are delusional. Go out for a walk this morning and clear your head.

Wow. KLCC has grown to three members. Great job. Thats 200% more than two years ago. Your going great.

So you say JP and others near his shop and coffee shop are the redevelopment supporters that you don't want to see?

Wow! I disagree. I think that JPs corner and area with the new wine bar is the nicest section of our blighted roadway. I wish other sections were that nice, but I can understand why all the business close in Leucadia. The roadway is a people and business killer.

Unlike the Facade Grant Program (available to merchants on 101 from the city, whereby the city can pay up to $2000 matching improvement costs for renovating the front of an existing building), the entire Streetscape's plan is separate from private property. It addresses infrastruture for a safer road for cars, bikes and will create more walkable sidewalks for pedestrians. This is good for everyone, not just the businesses on 101 but aimed to enhances our whole community. But for those who think the improvements at Leucadia Blvd for example, with better RR crossing points; beautiful classic streetlamps; colorful landscaping; and clean flat sidewalks are valueless and ugly (Like the person who put the sign on the park "Send this junk to Disneyland"), the vast majority of Leucadians and Old Encinitans will and should forever disagree. Period.

One of the more dangerous tasks - no matter where you drive, is navigating a left turn into uncontrolled traffic. That can't be changed unless either 80 stop signs or 20 roundabouts were installed on 101 - which thankfully ain't gonna happen. Today there are 20 streets that intersect with N. Coast Hwy 101, from Encinitas Blvd to La Costa Ave where left turns are possible from stop signs. One of the important Streetscape features that improves the safety at those stops is lowering the speed limit; already installed a few months back. Locals have requested the speed be lowered for decades (one of many wish list items within Streetscape improvements) is now a done deal. That's also a measure that increases safety exponentially for all. But to make things even better, 4 of those stops will be completely removed with the installation of roundabouts, making stops for left hand turns only necessary when someone is already in the circle. A total of 13 stop signs will be removed throughout the Streetscape. That equates to over 50,000 cars not having to stop, idle and accelerate per week. Imagine how much less pollution that means for the air we breathe, not to mention time saved and wear and tear on cars. Collectively, the crap in the air that's eliminated is equivalent to a city bus needlessly idling 24/7 in Leucadia/ Old Encinitas. Its also that much energy that will go up in smoke for as long as the 13 current stop signs remain.

How can you possibly say that 5 stop signs will be eliminated at Marchetta? That's only a three way intersection? So you must be counting a stop sign twice, in each direction, on the highway, and one, turning onto the highway? Way to artificially enhance the numbers, Fred. Again, please document anywhere where it is shown that the plans include eliminating the stop sign by Juanita's.

The "cartoon" sold by Peltz and Associates to City Council was NOT factual; the drawings were NOT engineered plans.

I have seen no evidence that any stop signs are to be eliminated at Marchetta! Fred's the only one I've heard claim this. The stop signs there, three, one for southbound, one for northbound, and one for people turning north or south on the highway from streets west of it, are going to remain.

Also, Fred doesn't give a source for his incorrect statement that "That equates to over 50,000 cars not having to stop." Again, you are twisting data, counting each stop sign, apparently, as regulating an equal amount of traffic as all others? On three way intersections? That is absurd, on the face of it!

The stop signs at Hygeia and Leucadia Blvd were supposed to be eliminated in Phase II of that roundabout project, with another roundabout there, at Hygeia, and more landscaping and sidewalks installed, also, with Phase 2.

That 3rd roundabout and stop sign elimination NEVER happened. The money was diverted, instead, to paying Peltz and associates about $558,000, to date, to lobby for roundabouts, hold bogus workshops, and provide "cartoon plans" for the North 101 Streetscam.

When almost two thirds of the people responding at the workshop most widely attended by adjacent residents and business owners opposing Alternative 4 voted NO on any roundabouts and lane elimination, the City simply ordered more "open houses" where public comment was not solicited or allowed, and a final workshop where anyone voting against the roundabout alternative, 4a, or the ONLY alternative, traffic signals, were counted as "no response."

That would be like holding an election, and if the "powers that be" didn't like the "certified results," just arbitrarily holding another one, a year later! And at the subsequent election, adding a new candidate "signals" and disallowing the top contender, "None of the above!"

A new vote for a politician could happen, and did with Gray Davis, through a recall, but not without a PUBLIC referendum! This "new survey" was simply ordered by vote of Council, and designed, by staff, to be purposefully misleading. giving disproportionate credence to development interests, at the expense of the common good.

When Council voted to approve Streetscape, it was only by ONE vote. Anyone actually living adjacent to the North 101 corridor, would have to recuse himself or herself. as Dan Dalager did. Likewise, Councilmember Kranz was a prominent STAKEHOLDER, through LTC, which has a rather "incestuous" relationship with L101MA. Fred is a member of both!

Both groups have pushed the roundabouts/lane closure to everyone, including the bicyclists, and especially to the City. How many active members are there in LTC, now that Tony has stepped down, and many former members have stepped away, in part because LTC now goes along, in lockstep, with the special interests of L101MA?

Bond voted no, BECAUSE OF LANE CLOSURE, and said, in twenty years people would ask, "what the heck were they thinking?"

The people who made up the sock puppet pretense of the keep Leucadia crappy club don't understand most locals' desire to keep it funky. The KLCC lobyists are instead projecting on those who oppose the streetscam, their own plans, to turn it crappy for adjacent residents and local commuters, so that they, the real crap promoters, can get something for nothing.

Sorry you misunderstood that the hwy 101 stop signs (or true choke points) at Marcheta St. will not be included for the Streetscape. But it perplexes me if you or anyone else thinks it's fun or even beneficial to stop there every time that everyone arrives at that intersection.

Why don't you give the L-101 group a call and see for yourself- or have Doug do that for you? He knows first hand how sincere, friendly and helpful they are.

And thank you for now calling the roundabouts by their real name and not "traffic circles" as you used to insist. I'm glad you researched the difference.

Currently there are at least 5 STOPS at Marchetta St that Streetscape will remove, not just 3. They are:2 STOPS southbound (one for each lane)1 STOP for southbound traffic turning right onto Marcheta St. (Which by the way was Orpheus originally). 2 STOPS for northbound traffic. These are the current obstructions that will no longer be in the way with Streetscape.

HOW can you count all four lanes of those N & S stops as only 2? There's even 5 physical stop signs there. Google Earth it if you've forgotten a few of them. HOW is removing stops for 5 directions of traffic "ARTIFICIAL"?! Let me explain it another way. Two stops north equal two stops north. If we can agree on that one issue, that would be a cool start. Then, the time element comes in to play. 2 stops north affecting 50,000 cars per week equals 50,000 mandatory stops eliminated with Streetscape -regardless of even how many stop signs you or I say there are at Marcheta St. If we can agree on that being true, even better.

As a kid I never aspired or even imagined to be in the same group my mother (RIP) was in. It was (and is) called the Leucadia/Encinitas Town Council. But when it reconvened 15 years later in the 90's, I was asked to come on board; listen to the community; try to make our area better for everyone representing our area's needs and ideas to City Hall. In 1993, neighboring merchant/resident Howard Greenwood (RIP) came to me and wanted to make a merchant group to address local issues on 101, but to also poll merchants and adjacent resident to see what they wanted for our skinny business district. We called it Leucadia Merchants Association. With the one exception of roundabouts (which no one ever heard of, let alone realize their benefits) our list of priorities is virtually identical to what the community voiced at ALL of our Streetscape workshops. TREES; ADEQUATE BIKE PATHS, SLOWER SPEED LIMITS, SIDEWALKS, ATTRACTIVE STREET LAMPS. BETTER DRAINAGE. My good friend Sheila Cameron was soon on board with LMA too and we all spear-headed getting $5 million allocated to our new drain system. After 10 years of being president of LMA there just wasn't enough time for me to devote to it and our voice dwindled. But it's spirit and intentions did not and I was soon contacted and asked to become a founding board member of a new merchant group which we soon called Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association. The list of positive accomplishments for our community too many to list here. In all three groups there have always been (exclusively local) residents and merchants on every board and in every membership. I'm so blessed to have worked for so many years with every member of these organizations and I plan to continue as long as I can.

I don't understand why you want to pit residents against merchants using the misinformation you do. We're all connected and in this together. And the vast majority of residents and businesses want to move forward together. I can only laugh when you called my involvement with two local groups "incestuous". You oughta be on stage.

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About Leucadia

Leucadia is a funky little beach community located in North San Diego county in southern California. Leucadia is the north section of the city of Encinitas.

English spiritualists settled the small coastal community of Leucadia in 1870, and are reputed to have danced, in diaphanous white robes in the little Roadside Park (Leucadia Blvd and Hwy 101).

The spiritualists are the reason so many of the streets are named after Greek gods and goddesses. Leucadia is Greek for "a sheltered place." Heritage Eucalyptus trees, planted in the 1880s, still grace the highway. When President Roosevelt passed through Leucadia in an open car during the Depression, local children climbed the Eucalyptus trees to wave to him.

Change happens slowly in this nostalgic little California beach town. In lieu of fast food restaurants and franchise chain stores, Leucadia has two miles of Mom 'n Pop businesses, and that's the way everyone likes it. The town war cry is "Keep Leucadia Funky."

Leucadia played an active role in the rebirth of the classic Highway 101 shield, restored in 1997, and was part of the successful 101 Campaign to have Highway 101 declared an historic route.

Leucadia is experiencing growing pains and culture clash in these first decades of the 21st century...

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